(a bouquet)
.
a bouquet
of my least favorite flowers
first love
.
bottle rockets #26
.
Red Dragonfly
haiku. poetry.
January 26, 2012
a bouquet
January 20, 2012
The Empty Mall
the black cat
returns its coat
– empty mall
.
air guitar —
nothing for sale at
the empty mall
.
empty mall –
the same voices
always inaudible
.
after the bomb
two swallows fledge
in the empty mall
.
every
face
in
the
empty mall
moon rocks
.
the empty mall
promises nothing
for everyone
.
zombies speculate
about their origins
in the empty mall
.
every storefront
in the empty mall —
a mouth
.
empty mall –
I take the pills
I promised to take
.
everyone arriving
at the empty mall
gets an empty balloon
.
further into
the empty mall
than I ever meant to go
.
a glass case
with a heartbeat
at the empty mall
.
sunrise
burns a hole in the wall –
empty mall
.
empty mall
so many
molecules
.
the phases of the moon
turn sour
I walk on tiptoe
with your memory
through the empty mall
.
a cloud of radiation
dissipates –
empty mall
.
empty mall —
a herd of nameless animals
in housewares
.
empty mall —
having our souls inspected
in the fountain
.
the general shouts his name
to the crowd
in the empty mall
.
the empty mall
is it me here
or another girl
with burning hair
.
January 17, 2012
(the stars I see)
.
the stars I see
and the stars
themselves
your voice a few feet away
in the darkness
.
American Tanka 20: A Few Feet Away
.
January 11, 2012
(blackbirds)
.
blackbirds on the moon…
the frustration
of wings
.
January 2012 Moon Viewing Party, Haiku Bandit Society
.
January 5, 2012
(a clutch)
January 2, 2012
(first dream)
.
first dream of the year
everything forgotten
before it begins
.
More about the kigo “First dream of the year” at Gabi Greve’s World Kigo Database
.
December 31, 2011
(New Year’s bonfire)
New Year’s bonfire
stories of what we lost
this year
.
December 29, 2011
Measuring
.
Alone. Alone. Alone. Alone.
four stars form something that isn’t quite square winter clarity
.
December 26, 2011
(as a doll)
as a doll I speculate about the tops of things
.
December 25, 2011
every Christmas
.
everyChristmas everyChristmasisthesame lights strung to evade the unavoidable dark, pine sap coating your fingers and the angels and the spun glass balls, paper keeps piling up on the floor and you begin to worry that something is lost beneath it but no matter how hard you look you can’t find anything but boxes with nothing in them and dry pine needles and the day moves toward dark no matter how many lights you light or how many fires you feed with paper and pine needles, thin dissatisfied fires with thin music circling them, and no matter how little you get you can never give away enough to make you feel better about it, and then you remember that something was born.
the morning after
you get what you want
empty stocking
.
December 23, 2011
(winter sea)
.
winter sea
no waves large enough
to conceal my face
.
December 22, 2011
bang and whimper
.
.
Very very slowly but also very quickly. That’s how the world ended and always will.
first day of winter –
is glass a solid
or a liquid?
.
December 20, 2011
Multiverses: Ready for Launch
.
Hey everyone,
Every once in a while someone makes you an offer you can’t refuse. This happened to me not long ago when John Hawk, who is a wonderful poet whose poetry I have featured in the Haikuverse, asked me to become the haibun editor of a new journal he was starting, called Multiverses.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to take on this challenge. Haibun have a special place in my heart because I started out as a prose writer and have been wrestling with that craft for so long, and then along came haiku to become my new obsession. Combining the two forms skilfully, imaginatively, and artistically is a goal I have been working toward for quite a while now. (You can read some of my efforts on my “Site Archive” page, in the “Haibun” category.)
I love to read what other people are doing to shape the relatively new form of English-language haibun and I’m looking forward to being part of the process of putting some of that work out there in the world. I’m also looking forward to working with the great crew of editors that John has assembled from around the world (see below). Send us what you’ve got, we can’t wait to read it!
_______________________________________________________________
Here’s John’s announcement:
It is my honor to announce the launch of Multiverses, a new online journal dedicated to publishing modern English haiku and related forms of Japanese poetry, as well as to make an initial call for submissions for our first issue (due out in Spring of 2012). From our editorial statement:
“Each moment of our lives is a haiku waiting to happen. The unique way in which we experience these moments creates an authentic and personal reality known only to ourselves—our own little universe, so to speak. Yet we are all part of the same sum. By sharing our individual experiences and observations, we gain perspective and insight into the world of others, therefore becoming better attuned and more intimate with our own. It is with this idea in mind that Multiverses happened into existence.”
We are so excited and pleased to have an incredible team of editors, including:
Paul Smith, Tanka Editor
Melissa Allen, Haibun Editor
Alexis Rotella, Haiga Editor
Johannes S. H. Bjerg, Features Editor
Please feel free to share this post and spread the word about our launch. For more information about Multiverses, including details on submitting your work (deadline for our inaugural issue is February 15!), please visit www.multiversesjournal.com. We’re all looking forward to reading your work!
John Hawk
Founder, Haiku Editor
Multiverses
December 19, 2011
Across the Haikuverse, No. 27: Okay, So I Lied Edition
I know, I know. I said I wasn’t going to do this again for a while. But I’m so used to it! I keep reading haiku I love! And then I cut and paste them to a document and then I paste them into WordPress and then I fiddle with the formatting a little and then I press “Publish” and you get to read them. It’s not really that hard. No, really! It’s not! I totally can do it… at least one more time. Right? Please?
…Thanks!
.
_________________________________________________________________________________
.
Haiku
.
brittle moonlight
self-immolations
drawn on a map
— William Sorlien, Haiku Bandit Society
.
hiding their faces well snowflakes
.
de skjuler deres ansigter godt snefuggene
— Johannes S.H. Bjerg, 2 tongues/2 tunger
.
change of seasons
I catch myself talking
to the wind
— Margaret Dornaus, Haiku-doodle
.
a break
in the clouds
how small we are
— Alegria Imperial, jornales
.
in the second-hand book shop, the purr of the three-legged cat
— Mark Holloway, Beachcombing for the Landlocked
.
千の矢の描く千の弧師走空 青柳 飛
sen no ya no egaku sen no ko shiwazu-zora
.
one thousand trajectories
of one thousand arrows—
December sky
Fay Aoyagi, Blue Willow Haiku World (her blog’s 1000th post)
.
目をつむりセーター脱げば剥製です 渡部陽子
me o tsumuri seitaa nugeba hakusei desu
.
taking off a sweater
with eyes closed
I am a stuffed specimen
— Yoko Watabe, tr. Fay Aoyagi, Blue Willow Haiku World
.
platelets—
the trip we were planning
to plan
— Roberta Beary, Tinywords
.
itallcomestogether in the darkness for the owl
— Johnny Baranski, Monostich
.
longue recherche
des lunettes pour mieux voir
le brouillard
.
a long search
for glasses, the better to see
the fog
— Vincent Hoarau, La Calebasse (dubious translation by me)
.
Haibun
she envies her her boyfriend that never fools around and her cherry-red convertible that never needs repairs and her outfits (complete with shoes and accessories) that can be had for less than ten dollars and the perpetually-shining plastic sun outside her practically-immaculate plastic house but most of all she envies her her god-damn nearly-perfect never-faltering ability-to-smile . . .
she says
“we can’t help who we love”
to no one
in particular
“all guys are assholes”
— Eric L. Houck Jr., haiku
.
Haiga
Kindly click on the links to see the haiga that are not posted here.
.
mouth of the cave
we enter as eagles
exit as sparrows
— an’ya, DailyHaiga
.
opening emergency door,
head-on spring moon
— Kikko Yokoyama, with haiga by Kuniharu Shimizu, see haiku here
.
— Aubrie Cox, Yay Words! (Click on the image [or the link to Aubrie's blog] for a larger, more legible version)
.
_________________________________________________________________________________
.
Essayed
Chen-ou Liu posted a great essay recently on his blog Poetry in the Moment about the phenomenon of “deja-ku”: “Read It Slowly, Repeatedly, and Communally.” Here’s a sample, but please go read the whole thing, it’s fascinating and there are lots of great examples.
.
Today, high poetic value placed upon originality remains ingrained in the Western literary culture. This fear of unknowingly writing similar haiku or the reluctance or disuse of allusion proves that Thomas Mallon’s remark still holds true: the poets live under the “fearful legacy of the Romantics.” Could those poets or editors who are constantly worried about “not being original or fresh” imagine that a poet deliberately using a direct quote as the first two lines of his haiku can achieve a great poem?
– Chen-ou Liu, “Read It Slowly, Repeatedly, and Communally”
.
__________________________________________________________________________________
.
Hey, thanks for indulging me. I feel better now.
.
bitter night
I keep reminding myself
I’m a poet
.
December 16, 2011
(indecision)
.
indecision I tear off one wing at a time
.
Modern Haiku 42.3
.
